Feb. 2012 Art Exhibition Recommendations

Another Africa’s top picks for exhibitions in February around the globe, from Cape Town to Marrakech, Bergen and more. Discover the dialogue within the realm of contemporary Africana, the hot topics being proposed by the artists and curators, that are actively widening the intellectual field and encouraging dialogue.

ARNHEM

In Six Yards Guaranteed Dutch Design, Dutch textile brand Vlisco portrays how they became a part of various West African cultures and entered the worlds of fashion, visual arts and photography.

The exhibition explores the history of the textiles and their stories, touching on Dutch post-colonial history, taking a look at the differences and similarities between Western and non-Western cultures, and shedding light on how visual artists and top designers have been inspired by Vlisco’s textiles.

BERGEN

Chasing Shadows, the first international retrospective of Santu Mofokeng, a photographer who consistently subverts the alleged certainties of cultural and racial histories, questioning photography’s politics of representation and its objectivity, in works dealing with a variety of issues; photographs of religious rituals, memorials or desolate landscapes. Mofokeng’s black-and-white photographs are lasting images of humanity, recording not just adversity and oppression, but also happy moments and the indomitable human spirit.

CAIRO

Tache Art Gallery | Hany Rashed
~ Feb.25

Hany Rashed. Salata. Courtesy of Tache Art Gallery

Salata, a retrospective exhibition by Hany Rashed whose work focuses on social interaction in different settings - work, on the street, travel, and ultimately Egypt’s ongoing revolution. Rashed explores artful possibilities, treating his artworks as neither perfected nor static projects but rather building on old works incorporating new directions.

CAPE TOWN

STEVENSON Gallery | Viviane Sassen
~ Feb.25

Viviane Sassen. Codex, 2010. Courtesy of Stevenson Gallery.

Parasomnia, Viviane Sassen’s photos express feelings of dislocation between home and away, night and day, life and dreams. The series comprises photographs taken in West and East Africa as well as a few taken in Europe, which frame her enigmatic and often haunting narratives.

Outside The Lines , a group exhibition that engages with the material elements and physicality of abstraction. Formally the works selected emphasize composition, colour, line, shape and texture. A critical point of entry is the potential for ambiguity often associated with abstraction.

Advance/ …Notice, a group show that gives notice to innovations from their renown artists the likes of David Goldbatt, and to their newest ventures into intellectual exchange with artists whose work they are exhibited for the first time.

Black Men in Dress & Iimbali brings together two bodies of work. The first, Black Men in Dress comprises a series of portraits photographed at the Johannesburg and Soweto Pride and the later, Imbali photographed at reed dances in KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland. The works contemplate themes of identity, ritual and belonging.

LONDON

TIWANI CONTEMPORARY | Synchronicity II
Feb.3 – Mar.17

Steeve Bauras. Chili, 2007. Courtesy of Tiwani Contemporary Gallery.

Synchronicity II, a show rooted in contemporary creativity within a global context presents work by nine artists from Africa and its diaspora – most of whom are showing in London for the first time . Like the
experience of synchronicity in psychoanalysis, their artistic practices capture the spirit of the moment, connected on one hand yet individual on the other. Presented by Tiwani Contemporary and curated by the collective On The Roof in partnership with baudoin lebon, Paris.

MARRAKECH

Arts In Marrakech Biennale | Surrender & Higher Atlas
Feb.29 – Jun.3

Arts in Marrakech works to form cultural bridges and dialogues creating a forum for debate, free thinking and the exchange of ideas through contemporary Visual Art, Literature and Film. The opening 5 days titled Surrender will consist of Performances, Debates, Talks and Screenings as well as the opening of the Main Visual Arts Exhibition, Higher Atlas curated by Carson Chan and Nadim Samman. High connotes reverie and transcendence. Higher Atlas suggests a cartography of the beyond. All works will be new site-specific commissions, conceived and created on location with local craftspeople and manufacturers. Over thirty international artists, architects, writers, musicians and composers will be showing their work. The exhibition seeks to engage in an expansive dialogue with the city.

PARIS

Depara, Night & Day in Kinshasa, 1955-1965 is the first retrospective exhibition of Jean Depara depicting Leopoldville (renamed Kinshasa). On view scenes from those heady days and nights as the nation neared and claimed its independence. From it’s youth frolicking at bars, their crazy nights to images of Franco, a leading musician in his day and more.

NEW YORK

James Cohan Gallery | Yinka Shonibare MBE
Feb.16 – Mar.24

Yinka Shonibare MBE. Fake Death Picture (The Death of Chatterton – Henry Wallis). Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery.

Addio del Passato is a multi-part exhibition of new sculptures, photoworks and the premiere of a new film, Shonibare explores the concept of destiny as it relates to themes of desire, yearning, love, power and sexual repression.

August Sander, High School Student, 1926 and Seydou Keïta, Untitled, 1952-1955. Courtesy of The Walther Collection

August Sander and Seydou Seydou Keïta: Portraiture and Social Identity unites the portraiture of two modern photography masters, Sander and Keïta. Their images vividly capture the rapid social transformations of the twentieth century through the faces of everyday people. Encapsulating two distinct cultures in pivotal moments of societal transition, Sander and Keïta’s portraits reflect on the experience and role of the individual in Germany and Mali.